“A little higher, sweetheart.”
Kathleen had been brave and strong, as if her heart pumped courage. And Layla had that same quality, heightened by recklessness. If anyone could look Death full in the face, it was she.
Layla stopped breathing, but her chin lifted. Her gaze skimmed over his mouth, his nose. Found his eyes.
“There you are.”
“Adam’s going to be mad about his wall.” She was shaking harder, and Khan wondered if she realized that she had transferred her grip from the counter to his arms.
“You are my Reason,” he said. “Do you understand?”
She shook her head, blinking hard and looking away. He followed the dodge of her gaze and caught her again.
“The light in Shadow.”
Her eyes were full of hurt. “Don’t say that.”
He tightened his hold on her. He had a strange sense that she was slipping away from him, when all should finally be well. “You don’t fear me, so what is it?”
The color in her face went ashy, and her heart stilled for a long, awful beat. “I know why I’ve come back. Why everything is happening right now. What I’m here to do.”
She tried to shrug him away but he gripped her hard, her body squeezed against his. He wasn’t letting her go.
“Out with it then.”
Layla strained again. No use.
“Speak, if you’ve something to say.”
She pulled a little air, steeling herself in his embrace. Met his gaze. She had to force the words out of her mouth, because she sure as hell didn’t want to say them. “Shadowman, I’m here to ask you . . . to beg you . . . to pick up your scythe again and do your duty.”
The room went silent except for her labored breath.
“You can’t mean it.” He released her and drew back from this revelation.
But Layla, his woman, his life, nodded her head. “I do. Please, you have to. You won’t listen to anyone else, but maybe you’ll listen to me. It’s why I was sent.”
Shadowman shook his head. “I don’t want to be Death anymore. You know I can’t.”
She looked at the floor and had the gall to sniffle. “Please. This is what I came to do. I can’t fail. It’s too important.”
The scythe cried from Twilight, the blade weeping for mortal blood. And she wanted him to answer it? “This place is a grave, and you are not dead,” he said. “Let us go.”
Rose made quick time across the compound aided by the knuckle push of her bad hand on the ground. Run, run, push. Run, run, push.
Shots were fired, but they skimmed by her as she vaulted a wall. Then over a jeep. Then took a gallop at the fence along the perimeter of Segue. Leaped. Swung her body over. Her bad hand and arm might be ugly, but they were lovely in their usefulness and strength. How many times had they saved her now?
She had to get out of there.
She urged her body faster, through the trees and growth and up to a knobby ridge, away from the evil that was Death. She only paused, holding her breath, to listen for pursuit. The night was silent. Trees swaying. Winter wind snaking through the branches. And above it all the cruel, cruel heavens. To allow that thing to walk the earth when she’d been sent to Hell made no sense whatsoever.
Hell had nothing compared to the monster she’d seen at the compound. Nothing.
The world was upside down, is what it was.
What if good was bad and bad was good? They were just words, after all. What if somewhere along the line, the good and bad traded places? And nice people like her were sent to torment, while Layla Mathews’s existence challenged the Gate.
Just look at that monster guarding Layla Mathews. Anybody could see that wasn’t right.
The world was upside down, for sure.
Rose glanced at the five-fingered claw that was her hand. The transformation had crept over her breast and now fed the pump of her heart so that she was alert, ready at all times.
How far could she get before sunrise? Clear the forest. Steal a car. Run. Run. Run!
Hell was kind in comparison to Death. Hadn’t Hell given her everything she needed to survive this harsh, unkind world? She should give thanks. If not for her arm, she’d be dead.
“Gate?” Rose said aloud.
The gate was quiet. For once.
Oh, thank goodness. Not that she wasn’t grateful, but still.
She’d better get moving. Put as much distance between her and Segue as possible. The last thing she wanted was to face that monster again.
So she was a coward, so what?
Ladies were supposed to be gentle.
Nothing, not even the gate, could compel her to go back.
Chapter 14